Genesis
4:2a-9; Isaiah 2:4; Matthew 5:43-48
The movie All Quiet On the
Western Front was released in 1930.
The movie, set in World War I, contains a scene between two American
soldiers. One soldier asks the
other, Where do wars come from anyway? The other soldier replied, Well, one country gets mad at another
country, and they start fighting.
The first soldier picks up his rifle and started walking away. Asked where he was going, he said, I’m going home. I’m not mad at anybody. I wish the reality of war was that simple.
Today ends our series Think
Again, and this morning we consider what has shaped our world and our lives
in ways more powerful than almost any other event or events in human history –
war.
One of the earliest stories of the Bible is that of Cain and Abel, which serves as a template for human history and man’s inability to live in peace.
Every person in this room has lived through a time of war. My first memories of war date to my
youngest years. One of my mother’s
brothers was wounded at the Battle of the Bulge, during World War II. He had trouble with his leg because of
his wound and I remember my curiosity about it led me to ask my mom what had
happened. She told me about the
battle and went on to tell me about when families in her neighborhood received
casualty notices. I remember as an
older child, in the early years of the Vietnam War, when we made prayer books
in Vacation Bible School. Each one
of us wrote a prayer that was copied so the prayer books contained a copy of
each child’s prayer. Though it was
a long time ago I remember that every one of our prayers included the plea that
God would bring an end to the war.
War is a difficult topic for us as followers of Jesus, because we
are citizens of two kingdoms – and earthly kingdom and a spiritual kingdom, and
sometimes the goals and actions of those two kingdoms conflict with one
another. Because we are citizens
of both kingdoms it is hard for us to know when we are thinking as citizens of
the earthly kingdom and when we are thinking as citizens of the heavenly
kingdom. Some of our beliefs and
thoughts about war come from our political beliefs while others come from our
faith and our reading of Scripture.
These two realms – the realm of faith and the realm of politics – do not
always harmonize very well. My
reading of the Bible, for instance, leads me to believe that Jesus was a
pacifist, but I am not a pacifist.
The first statement – that Jesus was a pacifist – comes from my faith
and my reading of Scripture, while the second is more of a political
statement.
The issue of war is complicated for us because the early church did
not have to face this question.
The early church had no influence over the military and Christians were
generally not welcome in the Roman army.
No Christian was in the position of declaring war or conducting a
military campaign. But when the
Roman Emperor Constantine became a Christian, everything changed. With his conversion the church went
from being persecuted by the emperor to being favored by the emperor, who was
now a Christian. The end of
persecution was a great blessing to the church, but the church was now in a
position it had never before known.
Now Christianity was championed by the most powerful person on the face
of the earth, the Roman Emperor, who controlled the greatest army in the world,
and who wielded the sword that controlled a vast empire. From that moment, war
became a different question to the church because of one Christian’s power to wage
war.
This led to the necessity of the church formulating a theology of
war and that theology was most famously devised by a bishop named Augustine,
who gave us the Just War Theory.
Under the Just War Theory war must meet the following guidelines to be
considered permissible theologically –
1. There must be a just cause. Though the nature of a just cause can
be a hotly debated matter, Augustine sought to frame what constituted a just
cause in a clear and concise manner.
A just cause, for instance, would not be to recapture land lost to an
enemy or retaliation for an attack.
To Augustine, a just cause was one that guarded against a grave danger
or offense, such as the threat of force against innocent people.
2. There must be a just intention. War cannot be waged to expand an
empire, to capture resources beneficial to a country or kingdom, for revenge,
conquest, economics, or supremacy.
3. There must be comparative justice. In other words, the act of war cannot
inflict more harm than the offense that led to the military response. A kingdom could not, for example, kill
more people in its response that it suffered in an attack. This prevents the never-ending
escalation of violence that comes as people, in seeking revenge, strike back
with a damage far exceeding the original harm.
4. There must be a legitimate
authority. Only a proper and just
government may declare a war.
5. There must be discrimination. All attempts must be made to guard
against harm to civilians, and civilians must never be targeted.
6. War must be waged only as a last
resort. All other options must be
exhausted before going to war and repentance should be practiced beforehand.
Is war that easy to categorize? While those are very helpful guidelines, I don’t believe
they completely solve the tension between war and what Jesus asks of us, so I
want to add some further thoughts.
All of these, I would add, are my beliefs and not everyone will agree,
and they are offered with profound gratitude for the sacrifices made by the
scores of soldiers who have risked or given of their lives.
I think Augustine’s conditions are helpful, but I would suggest
there are other matters to consider.
1. Recognize that the purposes of the state and the church are
not the same.
What is the purpose of the state? One of the primary purposes of the state is to ensure the
safety of its citizens. What is
the purpose of the church? One of
the primary purposes of the church is to bring the love of God and his kingdom
to all people, regardless of their nationality, their economics, their social
status, their politics, or any other manmade distinctions. This means that while the state may
collide with other states over borders and political ideology the church
transcends borders and political ideology, because there are no borders in
God’s kingdom. It also means that
while the state relentlessly pursues and battles its enemies, those who are
followers of Jesus are called to love their enemies.
War is a political action, not a spiritual one. Our responsibility as members of a
spiritual kingdom is to remind political powers that all options should be
explored before using force, and if force is engaged, that all proper
safeguards are exercised.
One of the Biblical characters who is a symbol of this conflict of
purposes is David. One of the
great kings of Israel, David was hailed for his military prowess. His skill as a military leader was a
source of great tension between himself and Saul. Though Saul was king, the people had great admiration for
David by cheering Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands (I Samuel
18:7). While David was
admired for his military skill, it was his military success that cost him one
of his great wishes. David
passionately desired to build a temple to honor God, but God would not allow
David to do so. In I Chronicles
28:3 David tells the people, God said to me, “You shall not build a house
for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood. It would fall to David’s son Solomon to
build the Temple.
2. Study the question of war thoroughly and with careful
attention to what the Scriptures have to say.
Whatever your thoughts about war, make sure that as a person of
faith they are well informed by Scripture. Study the Biblical passages for yourself and think about
them and pray about them. And,
most importantly, balance all of the passages together and interpret them
through the lens of Jesus.
3. Recognize that God’s desire is for peace.
At the birth of Jesus the angels sang Glory to God in the highest, and
on earth peace among men (Luke 2:14). In the Sermon On the Mount Jesus said, Blessed are the peacemakers, for
they shall be called sons of God (Matthew 5:9). In Romans 14:19 Paul writes So
then let us pursue the things which make for peace and the building up of one
another. The writer of
Hebrews tells us to Pursue peace with all men (Hebrews 12:14).
4. Remember that war is primarily a sign of the sinfulness and
brokenness of humanity.
War is a large-scale reproduction of the conflict between Cain and
Abel; it is the sad and tragic truth that some are not willing to live
peacefully with others. This is
why wars never end, because the problem that leads to war – the problem of
sinfulness and brokenness – is always with us. This truth led Augustine to write that the fact is that the power to reach domination by war is not the same
as the power to remain in perpetual control (City of God, page 327).
No human kingdom can ever dominate to the point of ending war because
the sin that led to war in the first place leads to a never-ending cycle of
violence that guarantees war is ever with us.
One of the tragedies of war is that while war may solve some
problems, it does not solve all problems and it often creates more
problems. The great answer to war
is the love of God that can transform the human heart from hatred and conflict
into love and grace.
5. War should never be waged in the name of Jesus.
We should pray for our leaders and the members of our military; we
should pray for the family members of the military; we should pray for the
civilians in war zones; and we should offer these prayers regularly and
fervently. We might even recognize
that war may sometimes be politically inevitable but we should not attaché the
name of Christ to war.
Gregory Boyd writes that The
kingdom of God is not a Christian version of the kingdom of the world. It is, rather, a holy alternative to
all versions of the kingdom of the world, and everything hangs on kingdom
people appreciating the uniqueness and preserving this holiness – (The Myth of a Christian Nation, Gregory
A. Boyd, page85).
The kingdom of God is very unique and very different from any
earthly kingdom. We cannot attach,
then, the name of Jesus to what represents in such a tragic manner the
sinfulness and brokenness of humanity.
We must instead always lift the name of Jesus higher as the goal for who
and what we should be.
On a visit to Washington, D.C., I visited two memorials one
afternoon. The first was the
Holocaust Museum, which is such a difficult place to visit. To see the horror and evil of what man
is capable of inflicting on his fellow man is tragic beyond words. From the Holocaust Museum I went to the
Vietnam War Memorial to look up the name of a friend. If you have been to that memorial you are well aware of the
powerful sight of that long wall etched with so many names, and the
overwhelming sight of the incredibly thick book that gives directions to each
name on the wall. I did what most
everyone does at that memorial; when I found the name of my friend – Robert “Moose”
Mosgrove – I ran my fingers over his name and thought about the kid who used to
hang out at our house.
He died doing what was asked of him and his loss was a great
sacrifice. My prayer at the
memorial that day was the prayer of so many through the ages – that there will
be a day when wars will cease, when young people will not have to give up their
lives, and peace will rule, and those immortal words of the prophet Isaiah will
ring true – And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for
many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares, and their
spears into pruning hooks. Nation
will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war
(Isaiah 2:4).
No comments:
Post a Comment